Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei begins a new chapter in her doubles career this week in Brisbane when she teams up with India’s Sania Mirza in a warm-up tournament for this month’s Australian Open.
World No. 5 Hsieh split up with long-time partner Peng Shuai of China at the end of last year following their defeat in the final of the WTA Finals in Singapore to world No. 6 Mirza and her then-partner Cara Black of Zimbabwe.
Although last season ended in disappointment for the Taiwanese player, as a partnership Hsieh and Peng collected another three doubles titles, including a second Grand Slam at the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris.
Photo: EPA
Hsieh, who turned 29 yesterday, also lifted the doubles titles in Doha and Indian Wells last year, as well as a gold medal in the team competition at the Asian Games when Taiwan upset the odds and defeated China in the final.
Although Brisbane is Hsieh and Mirza’s first outing, they have been handed the top seeding by the tournament organizers on account of their WTA doubles rankings and are due to play world No. 41 Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia and 48th-ranked Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia in the first round.
Another Taiwanese Asian Games gold medalist, Chan Hao-ching, is also taking part in the doubles in Brisbane alongside her partner, Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic.
Photo: EPA
World No. 27 Chan, 21, claimed three WTA Tour doubles titles last year: Kuala Lumpur with Hungary’s Timea Babos, as well as in Eastbourne, England, and Taipei with her sister, Chan Yung-jan.
Chan Hao-ching and world No. 9 Peschke, the No. 3 seeds, are due to take on world No. 25 Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands and 46th-ranked Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in the first round.
With Hsieh and Chan Hao-ching on opposite sides of the draw there is a good chance of an all-Taiwanese final at the first tournament of the year, but both will have to show better early-season form that Hsieh’s younger sister, Hsieh Shu-ying, who, along with partner Rika Fujiwara of Japan, crashed out of the first round of the doubles in Shenzhen yesterday.
Hsieh Shu-ying crashed out of the tournament after just 48 minutes, beaten 6-1, 6-2 by fellow Taiwanese Chan Chin-wei and Oksana Kalashnikova of Georgia, the No. 4 seeds saving all six break-point chances they faced and converting all four they created to cruise into the second round.
On the ATP Tour this week, Taiwanese No. 1 Lu Yen-hsun begins his season in Chennai, India.
World No. 38 Lu is seeded sixth in the singles and is due to face Indian wild-card Somdev Devvarman, the world No. 138, in the first round.
First, though, Lu teams up with doubles world No. 76 Jonathan Marray of Britain in the first round of the doubles today to take on Indian outsiders N. Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan.
CZECHS DOWN CANADA
Lucie Safarova had two wins — one in the women’s singles, another in the mixed doubles — to give the Czech Republic a 2-1 victory over Canada on the opening day of the Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia, yesterday.
Safarova defeated Wimbledon runner-up Eugenie Bouchard 6-0, 6-4 to give the Czech Republic an early 1-0 lead, then teamed up with Adam Pavlasek to beat Bouchard and Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 6-2 in the mixed doubles decider.
In between, Pospisil secured the Canadians’ only point with a 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 win over Pavlasek in the men’s singles.
Seventh-ranked Bouchard, coming off a breakthrough season that saw her reach the final at Wimbledon and two other Grand Slam semi-finals, was no match for the No. 16-ranked Safarova in the tournament opener.
“I was going for all my shots and it worked well,” Safarova said. “I tried to keep the pressure on, quickly. When she has time, she takes control.”
In the night session yesterday, Poland took a winning 2-0 lead over Australia after the singles matches.
Agnieszka Radwanska beat Casey Dellacqua 6-2, 6-3 and Jerzy Janowicz defeated Matt Ebden 3-6, 7-5, 6-0, with Ebden double-faulting on match point.
Today, Serena Williams is set to play her first match for the US with John Isner against Italy, while Andy Murray leads Britain against France.
Williams said the high temperature of 41?C forecast for today would suit her just fine as preparation for the frequently scorching conditions at the Australian Open in two weeks.
“If anything, it’s going to help me for Melbourne,” Williams said yesterday. “Perth is one of the hottest places I’ve ever played, so it will be really good for the preparation in Melbourne, which is always super-hot.”
The Perth Arena roof will be shut during Williams’ match against Italy’s Flavia Pennetta if the heat policy is enforced, or both players agree the conditions are unsafe.
At the Brisbane International, another of the Australian Open warm-up events ahead of the Jan. 19 start of the first Grand Slam of the year, hometown hope and former US Open champion Samantha Stosur lost her first-round match 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 to Varvara Lepchenko of the US on an opening day of upsets.
Earlier, Ajla Tomljanovic beat sixth-seeded former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia 7-6 (8/6), 6-0.
Tomljanovic — who was born in Croatia, but is now based in Brisbane — is planning to apply for Australian citizenship in the next few months.
In other matches, seventh-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain beat Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 and Kaia Kanepi of Estonia upset fifth seed Andrea Petkovic of Germany 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.
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